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Holy Week at the Monastery 2009

Monday in Holy Week

Monday in Holy Week Traditions

The vestments and hangings for Holy Week at the Monastery are made of deep red silk, with orphries of black velvet, bordered by brown banding worked with a large Greek key pattern. All three colors (red, black, and brown), as well as the Greek key, were used in the Monastery’s Lenten Array, but in these vestments, what were merely accents in Lent are now “writ large” for the enormity of Holy Week with its solemn pageantry and drama.

Preparing for Burial

Kevin R. Hackett, SSJE
at the Monastery

Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, the home of Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. There they gave a dinner for him. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those at the table with him. Mary took a pound of costly perfume made of pure nard, anointed Jesus’ feet, and wiped them with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume. But Judas Iscariot, one of his disciples (the one who was about to betray him), said, ‘Why was this perfume not sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor?’ (He said this not because he cared about the poor, but because he was a thief; he kept the common purse and used to steal what was put into it.) Jesus said, ‘Leave her alone. She bought it so that she might keep it for the day of my burial. You always have the poor with you, but you do not always have me.’ When the great crowd of the Jews learned that he was there, they came not only because of Jesus but also to see Lazarus, whom he had raised from the dead. So the chief priests planned to put Lazarus to death as well, since it was on account of him that many of the Jews were deserting and were believing in Jesus. (John 12:1-11, NRSV)

Today’s gospel gives a glimpse into the private lives of Jesus and his friends. He’s about to go into Jerusalem for the last time, and before he does, he stops in at the home of Martha, Mary, and Lazarus of Bethany. John tells us earlier that he loved them, though he does not tell us why—probably because “if love be true,” there really is no why—it just is. They are his friends, and though they seem to know who he is (they call him, “Lord”), it also seems that they offer the kind of intimate hospitality that all of us need from time to time, the kind where we do not have to function with our public roles and personas. Their home is the place where Jesus can be just as man, though they are fully aware that he is also the messiah.

Just a few days earlier, Jesus has worked his greatest miracle with and for them: Jesus the man wept at the tomb of four-days dead Lazarus, while Jesus the messiah raised him back to life. But raising Lazarus from the dead is Jesus’ undoing, as far as the officials of the religious right are concerned. They get it—they know if this man has power over death, there really is no stopping him—he will undo life as they (and we!) know it. Jesus is at the top of their most wanted list. So they plot to kill, and now not just Jesus, but Lazarus as well.

The air is dense with the scent of death, and rather than deny it or pretend it isn’t so, Mary leans into it, accepting life on this day on its own terms, as is always the case with women in the gospel according to John. Think about that for a minute: Jesus’ first miracle—changing water into wine at Cana—comes about because of the pragmatism of his mother. The woman at the well understands in very short order just who Jesus is. Martha and Mary know just who they needed to call for help when Lazarus was ill, and though they were grief-stricken when he died, they also set the stage for Jesus’ own proclamation of his deepest identity as Life itself. When most of the men desert Jesus, it’s the women who stick it out. And, at the risk of getting ahead of where we are on the liturgical time line, it is to a woman, Mary Magdalene, that Jesus first appears after his resurrection. The women always get it in John—which means we need to pay close attention to them, to what they say, and even more importantly, to what they do.

Mary anoints her friend Jesus for his burial, even though he is not yet dead. The way John tells it, there is a sense of inevitability with what’s about to happen. Jesus certainly seems to know it, and Mary does, too, so she does what’s necessary to ensure that whatever happens will done rightly and in good order. Death, she is saying by her actions, is an unavoidable event, so she prepares for it as well and as generously as she knows how. Does she know Jesus will rise from the dead? Most certainly not, though she does have some first hand experience of resurrection, and therefore a sense of hope, even in the face of hopelessness. And it seems to me that this is where she is so helpful to us, as we prepare for resurrection.

There is not a man or woman here listening who has not faced first-hand the reality of death and dying. I suspect, actually, that most of us are keenly aware of the continuing specter of death, if not literally, then in the necessary dying that must happen in our lives or the life of someone we know and love in order to receive the gift of new life.

Perhaps it is facing literally into mortality. Perhaps it is the loss of some long cherished ideal or dream, or the surrendering to the mercy of God, some failed relationship. Perhaps it is facing the fact of some loathsome addiction or compulsion that finally must be dealt with, that cannot be ignored any longer in order for you to live.

Whatever it is, Mary invites us to prepare for burial. So here are some questions that you might find useful during these next few days, as we follow the Lord into Jerusalem: What is it in your life that is about to die or needs to die or more brutally still, needs to be put to death? What part of your heart and soul needs to be lovingly anointed and prepared for burial? Where in your life are you most in need of resurrection?

Death is inevitable. That’s the bad news. But there’s good news, too. The good news is that resurrection has the final word, and that word is Life.